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Monday, May 27, 2013

Wed, 22May - Entering the South San Juan Wild

Lots of snow and fantastic views! Crossed many streams, cool waterfall on the Wolf Creek and many better ones coming off the mountains in the distance. The route was a mix of trail, snow fields, rocks, meadows... Did I mention snow? And slipping on icy slopes, and post holing, and falling through snow into rivers and ponds under the snow, and post holing, glissading, and oh yah there was some post holing!

Route finding was hard at times because the snow covered the route and cairns. Many times we went high up onto rocks to stay out of the snow then search on the other side to find the trail. Bob and I hiked together again and it was helpful to have two heads to navigate.

At one point we got off following a diverging path and ended up below and a half mile east of the route. We ended up rock and snow scrambling up some steep stuff and finally post holing through extensive snow fields to get back on the right ridge. Hard work but it was an exciting adventure. The views up here in the San Juan's are fantastic. And we lucked out on the weather; sunny but windy. I hiked most of the day in a T-shirt and shorts. My wet icy feet were freezing but the sun felt great. Definitely softer snow in the afternoon and we stopped early hoping to have firmer snow in the morning.

Camping at Dipping Lakes where we found some dry ground for two tents but surrounded by snow, the lake, and mountains. A super excellent day!